Talk at St. George's German Lutheran Church

On Thursday 22 March at 6.30pm at St.George's, Alie Street. A talk by Philip Norman on 'Bach, Beethoven, and the Latin Mass'. Tickets - £5 on the door. Check the website http://www.stgeorgesgermanchurch.org.uk for further details.

South West Regional Meeting

On Saturday 21 April (10.00-16.00) Jenny and Peter Towey are hosting a regional meeting in their home in Weston-super-Mare (for full address see inside cover of 'Blatt). Refreshments, cheese and biscuits provided. Names Index, reference books and bookstall all available. In case we need to hire a venue, please inform Jenny of your intention to attend.

Talk on German Pork Butchers

Karl-Heinz Wuestner will be giving a talk entitled 'Hope, Pork’s Glory and Decline - the Story of German Immigration on Tyneside' on 21 April 2018 at 11.30am at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Entry is free but places are limited so booking is essential (Website). For further details, see: Poster

Aachen FHS magazine

'Involuntary Guests' - a new publication

'Involuntary Guests: Enemy Aliens and Political Detainees on the Isle of Man in World War 2'. The author, Alan Franklin, is a retired Chartered Librarian with over 40 years’ experience of working in libraries. For 23 years he was librarian at the Manx Museum in Douglas and met with and corresponded with numerous former internees and researchers into Internment: this book draws on that knowledge. For further details: 'Link'

WWII Enemy Alien/Refugee Records

Findmypast has recently released 139 000+ records of enemy aliens/refugees from WWII. After selecting 'Search' on the FMP subscription site, go to 'Record set' and start typing 'enemy aliens' - the correct record set will then appear and you can enter your ancestor's name.

2nd Pork Butchers Reunion

The Second Great Pork Butcher Descendants’ Reunion was organised by Karl-Heinz Wüstner in the Hohenlohe Region, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, from 3rd to 7th August 2016. Peter Towey has written a report which may be downloaded as a PDF document: PDF. The reunion was also reported in the local paper: PDF.

Genealogy.net

Verein für Computergenealogie e.V. is the largest genealogical society in Germany. Their website 'Genealogy.net' provides many useful databases and search facilities. Slides describing the main features are available for download as a PDF document: Genealogy.net

Hans Munz

Hans was a German POW stationed at the prison camp at RAF Hornchurch, Essex in WW11. He and another POW, whose name was CARL BERGMEYER (spelt from memory) used to visit our home, once this was allowed. I was probably about 8 years old. Hans was kind to me, making furniture for my dolls house and taking me to see Bing Crosby’s film ‘The Bells of St Mary’s’ when it was shown at the camp cinema. He left us these photos when he was repatriated. My grandmother, Mrs BOENKE, was German (Pommeranian neé BUCHHOLZ).

Embossed in white at the base of the photo is ‘Konstanza’, presumably the town in which he was married. He may, of course, have died by now but as I can take copies I would dearly love to be able to return the originals to anyone of his family if possible.